pictures,pictures,everyone

Here is the second item I'm crocheting. It's to help me learn to keep my edges even. There is a few spaces along the edge where I could have gone one more space and kept it uniform. For the most part it's even. This is a simple shell stitch. Currently it's at 4.5 inches width by 1.5 feet in lenth. Size 00 crochet hook used.

On this I was thinking of adding a bit of tatted edging to it when it gets large enough. I'm using a pattern that I hope will compliment the shell stitch.

 And finally we have the mistakes on the Welcome Home blanket. By not skipping 2 spaces but 1 I managed to get it to curve. There's no way this will lay flat, so as tired as I am of saying this....time to rip that entire section out and start over.

My search on the bamboo thread had come to an end. I found it in 7 different colors online. The only negative is that they are asking for 4 times the going price for one ball. Now I say ridiculous because even the plan white which is sold for about $3/ball is at the same price as these colored ones. I'm just going to dye my own thread. It'll run me roughly $10 for the dye plus time, still way cheaper than buying it from the suppliers.

On the blanket vein...I made a huge mistake. After doing the second 'ribbon round', I miscounted the stitches. Instead of skipping 2 spaces I only did 1. So now there's five entire rows I have to undo and restart. I'm disappointed and bit frustrated with myself. I really want to get this pattern finished quickly but I keep hitting roadblocks. I'm setting it aside for a couple of weeks, just to get my head on straight. I did move on to another simple pattern. A shell pattern I'm just making up into a square. It's only purpose is to teach myself how to continue without adding or subtracting. In other words, paying attention. It's also being made with the size 10 bamboo thread because I have 5 balls of it, and I'm using a size 00 crochet hook. It works out better with the crochet thread than the smaller one I'm using for the blanket. Also, because the thread isn't being stitched so tight, it feels softer. Like when I first fingered the bamboo thread on it's ball.

Row 17

I haven't worked on this much the past week. I've been feeling under the weather and haven't had energy for much. I have gotten to the 1/4 mark of Row 17. The next turn will be the base of the 'ribbon' row, or the gap section there in the picture. I did manage to get a new ruler and the length measures 32.5 inches long or 2 feet 8.5 inches. I should have kept going until I hit 3 feet even. In any case, it is definately long enough for a baby to use. Here's a close up of the stitch work:

The stitches like I may have mentioned before are very small and tight. One Double Crochet is 1/3 of an inch thick and 1/2 inch high.

Row 15

Here we are at the 1/3 mark of row 15.

See that gap section there? It represensts one whole section. In the end, there's to be 8 of these. I was considering going until I doubled that count as well. Since I did double the length I should also double the width. I suppose it will have to wait until I did the 8 first.

White

Here we have the do-over entirely in Aunt Lydia's size 10 white bamboo thread. I stopped on row 12 because my behind is sore from sitting down. This time I did double the starting chain so instead of 209 stitches it has 418, it measures roughly 2.5 feet in length. I say roughly because I have no measuring tape to give an accurate size right now. The hook being used is size 10/1.30 MM so the stitches are pretty small and tight. I do plan on unraveling the other one with green and salvage the white bamboo thread into this one. One thing about the thread I didn't care for is that halfway through one skein there was a knot tied. Like the machine had ran out of thread before the skein was fully rolled and they just tied another lead to it until it reached 300 yards. Since I'm new to the world of this particular type of thread, I don't know if it's common to find yarn/thread like this.